It is known to apply a force to a wire conductor and a terminal to crimp the wire conductor to the terminal. The force needed to produce the crimp portion, or core crimp portion element, is a core crimp force. The applied core crimp force producing the core crimp portion element has a core crimp force signature.
It is desirable to render a consistent, reliable quality decision on the quality of the core crimp portion element after application of the core crimp force during the crimping cycle. Smaller gauge wire conductor of less than 18 AWG includes a plurality of wire strands in an inner electrical conductor portion of the wire conductor that has a decreased cross section area as compared to similar plurality of wire strands contained in an inner electrical conductor portion of larger gauge wire conductor. The decreased cross section area in the inner electrical conductor portion in wire conductor of less than 18 AWG makes detecting a quality defect of a missing strand of wire in the core crimp portion increasingly difficult. A missing strand of wire in the plurality of wire strands in the inner electrical conductor portion may be caused by one or more of the plurality of wire strands being cut away during a wire stripping operation of the wire conductor to expose the inner electrical conductor portion in preparation to produce the core crimp portion element connecting the electrical conductor portion to the terminal. A missing strand of wire in the inner conductor core may also result if a quality defect is inherent in the electrical conductor portion of the wire conductor. An undetected core crimp portion element having a quality defect of at least one missing wire strand missing from the plurality of wire strands may produce undesired adverse downstream quality issues when the core crimp portion element connecting the wire conductor to the terminal is manufactured into a wiring harness assembly that is subsequently used in a product application.
Therefore, what is needed is an improved quality assessment of the core crimp portion element to detect quality defects and increase the probability that defective core crimp portion elements are not manufactured in downstream product applications using the core crimp portion elements. Detecting quality defects in the core crimp portion element is especially desirable for a terminal being crimped to a size of wire conductor being less than 18 AWG.